


Soul Shocking

by Auremberite



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), F/F, Gay Keith (Voltron), Genderswap, High School AU, Lance is Lana, Soul Bond, because theyre girls now, but its not a soul bond, its called soul shocking because its like soul searching... but also not, keith is keira
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 10:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15192587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auremberite/pseuds/Auremberite
Summary: "Are we soulmates?""What?""I mean,I've been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, and-""We're not gonna fall in love, Blue. I promise."Or, alternatively, a genderswap Klance au where after an accident, whenever a mark shows up on Lana's skin, it shows up on Keira's as well, and vice versa. Lana's read a lot of gay fanfiction, and she thinks it's a soulbond. She's read stories just like this, and to her, this link is a dream come true. It's her chance at a happily ever after. But Keira... Keira just tries to wash the marks away.





	Soul Shocking

**Author's Note:**

> Guide to genderbent names:  
> Lana = Lance  
> Keira = Keith  
> Piper = Pidge (she/he/they)  
> Hanna = Hunk  
> Sheila = Shiro  
> Arlo = Allura  
> Lottie = Lotor

                “Lana, if you play Party in the USA one more time, I’m gonna throw your iPhone out of the window.”

                Lana gasps dramatically. “Hanna! Tell me you’ll protect me from the small, uncultured gremlin sitting next to me!”

                Hanna tugs at the end of her orange headband. “Actually, Lana… Party in the USA is kind of a meme at this point. Get some new songs, dude.”

                “Hanna! We’re platonic soulmates! You’re supposed to agree with everything I say!” Lana replied, giving Hanna her best please-protect-me-from-Piper’s-wrath look.

                Hanna sighs. “You’re right, Lana. Party in the USA is still relevant in today’s society. Thank you for gracing this school bus with it and its music video,” she replies in a deadpan.

                Piper shrugs. “Whatever. I can still hack your phone and delete it from your iCloud.”

                Lana smirks and waves her phone in Piper’s face. “Good thing I have a bunch of other ‘stale meme’ songs on my Spotify.”

                Hanna lightly takes the iPhone from Lana’s outstretched hand with the precision you would associate with detonating a bomb. “Hey, yeah, try not to fight before we even get off the school bus. I’d hate to see you get in trouble on the first day like you did last year.”

                Piper smirks and pushes her glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose. “Hm, you mean the time Lana got detention before the even school year officially started?”

                Okay, so last year, _maybe_ , just _maybe,_ Lana had thought it would be funny to drink clear Gatorade out of a bleach bottle in the main lobby of their high school before first period started. And _maybe_ the health teacher had been watching, and _maybe_ he couldn’t take a joke and slapped the bottle out of Lana’s hands, where the Gatorade splashed onto some poor kid’s outfit. And _maybe_ the principal blamed Lana for the ruined clothes and for causing a public disturbance, and _maybe_ she got detention for three weeks. It’s all hypothetical.

                “ _We do not speak of that incident,_ ” Lana stage-whispered.

                Hanna smiled. “But it turned out fine, right? Didn’t you meet that one girl in detention? What’s her name… Shira? Shina?”

                Lana snapped, “It’s Sheila.” Her eyes softened. “Yeah… she’s… pretty great.”

                Sheila had been in detention for being late on the first day of class. Apparently, she’d been late because it had been raining and she had to walk to school in the downpour. Lana is pretty sure that Sheila would never be in detention for any other reason. She was… amazing… almost perfect…

                Hanna whispered to Piper, “Look, he’s daydreaming about her again. Gaaaaaaay.”

                That snapped Lana out of her stupor. “Hanna, you _know_ I’m bi, not gay. Like, the colors of the normal pride flag don’t go with my whole aesthetic. The bi flag is so much prettier… A perfect flag for a perfect face,” she said, grinning.

                “Lana, please tell me you didn’t choose your label based on the colors of the pride flag,” Hanna said, pinching her eyebrows together.

                “Nah fam, you’ve seen me date guys and girls, remember?”

                Piper smirks. “And if Lana _had_ chosen her label based off of the colors of the flag, she obviously would’ve chosen my pride flags. Asexual and pangender… they’re beautiful…”

                Lana begins to reply, but Hanna cuts her off with, “I know that all of you have great pride flags,” and in a smaller voice, “but my pansexual flag would crush all of your flags, that pink/yellow/blue color combo is killer,” then back to her normal tone, “but we should just support each other and _not_ fight, and- hey! We’re at school.”

                The butterscotch yellow bus pulled up to an old, decrepit brick building label with the words ‘Garrison Technical Institute and High School’ in worn metal lettering.

                “Ah, high school, the bane of my existence,” Lana mused, staring at the four-story building with a mixed look of nostalgia and hatred. “Well, time to suffer.”

                “Lana, stop staring at the school and get your ass out of the aisle, you’re holding up the back of the bus. If I’m late and get detention, I’ll-” Piper started.

                Lana snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m well aware of what you can do. Blah blah blah hacking, technical stuff, computers, science.” Lana dragged her foot out from behind the bench and starts walking. “Try not to blow a circuit thinking about revenge.”

                Knowing that taunting Piper was a sure way to get them mad, Lana speed walked down the aisle. She said a loud thank you to the driver, and waited just outside of the bus doors for her friends. Someone else pushed past Lana, and bumped her shoulder roughly, almost knocking her to the ground.

                Lana turned around angrily. “Hey, bro, not cool.”

                The offender turned around, and oh shit, Lana had not been prepared for the girl to be as pretty as she was. The first thing Lana noticed were her eyes. They were dark purple, like nothing he’d ever seen before. Her eyes were also filled with a lot more anger than Lana would’ve expected, too.

                “Next time, don’t stop right in front of the doors, idiot,” the girl replied as she looked over her shoulder, smirking and holding a finger gun in the sky.

                Nope. No matter how pretty she was, this girl was still an asshole. “Maybe you should watch where you’re going!” Lana replied in a yell.

                The girl muttered something as she turned away.

                Piper and Hanna finally walked off of the bus.

“Yikes, dude,” Piper said, smirking. “Is she gonna be the next Sheila?”

“What?” Lana shrieked. The people around them looked at Lana, mildly concerned, but she brushed them off. “I _do not_ like her. She’s all broody and angry and mysterious and - don’t look at me like that!”

Hanna was silently snickering. “I don’t know, dude. Whenever you find someone you like, you always act weird around them.”

“I do not!” Lana was practically yelling by now, which was unfortunate as they were just entering the school, drawing in gazes from around the main lobby.

“Yeah, you do. Whenever Arlo is around, you always smile at him way too much and do these garbage pickup lines. Then whenever Sheila is in the room, you’re super clingy. And now with this girl, you get super loud,” Piper argues, counting each name off on her fingers.

Lana makes a bunch of spluttering sounds that sound pathetic, even to her.

Before she can give a classic Lana Comeback™, the first bell rings, cutting off that conversation until another time.

“Oh yeah, what’s y’alls first period classes?” Lana asks, rummaging through her deep blue Nike backpack for her schedule.

Piper holds up his schedule. “Okay, first of all, did you just say ‘y’alls?’ Are you a _literal cowboy?_ And I’ve got physics in room 406. Ugh, I’m on the fourth floor. That’s literally 104 steps at 7:45 in the morning.”

“Yo, me too!” Lana replies, holding her hand out for a fist bump, which Piper declines. “Also, have you… counted all of the steps in the school?”

Piper nods solemnly while Hanna says, “Ooh, hard pass on the stairs. I signed up for bio-chem first semester, but I switch to physics for the spring. I guess I’ll be in your class in a few months. Until then, I’m only on the first floor.”

“Nice, bro!” Lana gives Hanna a fist bump, and she accepts it. “See, Piper? That’s how you-”

But Piper is already walking away. “Hurry up, loser. The five-minute bell already went off, and we have stairs to climb.”

Lana groans. “Ugh. Fine. Cya, buddy.”

o0O0o

“Shit,” Lana mutters.

She’d been hoping for assigned seats, but _unfortunately_ for them, the teacher was actually pretty cool and let them have free seating, which meant that the first people in the class got to pick their seats first. Since Lana and Piper were late, the only seats left were at the back of the class, at a table group with just one other person.

Lana stalks over to the seat across from the girl and mutters, “ _You._ ”

The girl looks up from her phone. “Oh, fuck.”

Piper takes a seat next to Lana. “Oh, hey, you’re on our bus. I saw you talking to La-” she’s suddenly cut off by Lana.

“I sure fucking hope you can keep up. This is _advanced_ physics after all. It would be a shame if you dropped out halfway through the year,” Lana jabbed.

The girl stared back in a deadpan. “Just worry about yourself, honey.”

Lana stood up. “Don’t ‘honey’ me, you-”

A sharp voice cut across her shouts. “Ms. McClain.”

 _Shit._ The teacher in the front of the room was giving her a stern gaze. Even a little disapproval made Lana’s heart constrict, and she had to take a moment to breathe.

“Don’t earn yourself a detention before the year even begins.”

Lana sat down in her chair, folding her arms across her chest and pouting.

“Now, since it’s the first class of the year, I thought you should all do an exercise to get to know each other. So I’d like all you to talk with your table group, and each say your name, age, favorite color, and one fun fact about yourself. Go ahead!”

Everyone else began to talk… Except for Lana’s table, who sat in cold silence.

After a few more beats of silence, both Lana and the other girl began to talk to the same time. They glare at each other, and Lana notices her long eyelashes, her defined cheekbones, her-

“I’m going first, dude,” the other girl said.

Lana shook her head. “Nuh-uh. No way. I’m going first.”

The other girl continued anyway. “Hi. My name is Kei-”

“My name is Lana McClain-”

“I’m-”

“Seventeen, and I never fucking learned how to-”

“That’s not even the vine, you idiot.”

“Well, I’m not nineteen yet!”

Piper voice cut through their argument. “ _I’ll_ go first.”

Both Lana and the other girl went quiet.

Piper tilted her green beanie a little higher so that you could see the beginnings of her caramel colored hair. “My name is Piper Holt and I’m sixteen. I’m pangender, and I’m okay with she/her, he/him, or they/them pronouns, so feel free to switch between them. My favorite color is definitely green, and my fun fact… hm… My fun fact? My Dad works at NASA, and let me go to a meteor crash site over the summer, where I got this,” they say, taking a chunk of a strange, glowing black stone out of their pocket. “It’s a piece of a meteorite. I haven’t got the chance to run some tests on it yet, but I bet it’ll be really cool since it’s from _space._ ” Piper sighs, then looks at the other girl. “And… you should probably go next.”

The other girl nodded.

“What? We’re friends! You should’ve told me to go next!” Lana exclaimed.

“That would’ve been biased, _Lana._ Just shut up for five seconds.”

The other girl takes a deep breath. “Uh, I’m Keira Kogane. I turn seventeen in a week.”

Lana snorted. “Ah, so young.”

Keira’s eyes narrowed, but she kept going. “My favorite color is red-”

“Red? That’s like the worst color out there,” Lana said, leaning back in her chair. “Blue is much better. Red is the literal worst.”

“Just so you know, blue is pretty ugly. It’s like a basic bitch color.”

Lana gasped and put a hand over her heart. “Take it back!”

Keira started into Lana’s eyes, and Lana totally didn’t blush. Totally.

“Blue. Is. For. Basic. Bitches,” Keira said again, pausing after each word.

Piper put a hand on Lana’s shoulder. “Lana, I don’t mean to be a Hanna right now, but I’m gonna tell you calm down.”

Lana folds her arms and glares at the linoleum floor.

Keira looked between them and continued, “My fun fact…”

“Like anything’s fun about _you_ ,” Lana grumbled.

Keira took a deep breath. “My fun fact is that I do kendo.”

Piper put a hand over Lana’s mouth as she started to talk. “That’s really cool, Keira. That’s like sword fighting, right?”

Keira nods. “Yeah, it’s pretty fun, I guess.”

Lana shoves Piper’s arm away. “Yeah? I bet I can have a better fun fact!”

Keira blows a stand of hair out of her eyes, and Lana has to force herself to stay natural. “Hm? Sure.”

Lana takes a deep breath and speed talks through her intro. “Hi, my name’s Lana McClain, I’m seventeen, my favorite color is blue,” she shoots a look at Keira, “and I surf competitively in the summer and I play the ukulele really well.”

“That was two facts, dude. That means I get one more,” Keira replies, folding her arms.

“But you have to admit they were two cool facts.”

“Eh. They were… mediocre at best.”

Lana honestly can’t tell if she wants to yell at this girl or hug her. Actually, shit, she doesn’t want to hug her. She doesn’t want to do anything more with Keira. She’s an asshole.

Luckily, the teacher interrupts again before Lana can say something she’ll regret.

“Now that you’re a little familiar with each other, I’m going to have you work in groups to have you review some things from last year. I’d like to start with reviewing some things about electricity, since that’s our first unit for the fall. If you look around the room, I’ve placed some power sources along the walls. I’d like your table group to test the amount of power that you can conduct through different objects. I have some charts at your table for you to fill out. And remember, don’t set the voltage higher than 5 watts.” The teacher claps their hands together. “You have the rest of class to do this, so get started. And it _will_ be graded.”

Piper groans. Lana snaps her head up from her phone, which she was using to text Hanna under the desk.

“What?” Lana asks.

“It’s a stupid graded assignment on the first day.”

“So you’re telling me I have to work with _her?_ ” Lana exclaims, pointing at Keira.

Keira snorts. “Hey, buddy, I’m the one who should be complaining.”

“I’ll show you,” Lana mutters.

“What does that even mean?” Keira asks, gesturing with her hand.

“Hey, we should just… get to a generator!” Piper interrupts, standing up abruptly. “I just want this class and day to be over so please hurry.”

“You can’t rush beauty,” Lana says, flipping a lock of hair over her shoulder.

“Oh yeah? Then you shouldn’t have any problems hurrying,” Keira replies, smirking.

“Ajhnsdfkfhjaskldfh Piper!” Lana splutters.

“Honestly Lana, I’m really impressed that you managed to say a keyboard smash out loud… somehow… but just shut up and do the project.”

While Keira and Piper were busy changing the settings on the generator to tune it for the first material they were testing – silver – Lana finally got a chance to take a closer look at Keira. Her jet back hair flowed over her shoulders like a wave of darkness. She wore a maroon sweater with two white stripes on each sleeve, which totally brought out her plum colored eyes, by the way. She wore black skinny jeans that were lightly ripped, black vans, and Lana could see a black shirt peeking out from under her sweater. Lana was tempted to call her out for being emo, but she didn’t.

But Lana noticed more than that. She noticed the smile lines that crossed her face – faint, but present. She noticed the bruises on her knuckles that makeup couldn’t hide and the dark circles that rimmed the girl’s eyes. But sometimes beauty isn’t what makes you look pretty, it’s the things that make you human.

 “Okay, let’s test it,” Piper said. He connected the wires, and the circuit worked. “That’s 3.4 volts,” she muttered. “Lana, write it down.”

“Hey! How come I have to write things down while you two get to do the fun stuff?” Lana exclaimed indignantly.

“Because both of us can do it quicker than you,” Piper replied.

“Whatever,” Lana muttered, scribbling down a quick 4.3 – that had been the number, right? Lana hadn’t really been listening, but didn’t want to ask again in front of Keira.

Piper was right. The two of them could set up the tests faster than Lana. In fact, they could do it faster than the entire class. They finished going through ten substances in the time it took most other groups to do five.

Piper and Kiera high fived, and a surge of jealousy ran through Lana. So Piper would high five Keira, a stranger, but not fist bump Lana? Fine.

“Yo, what if we tested that dumb space metal thing you have, Pipes?” Lana said offhandedly. She wanted to prove to Kiera that she could do _something_.

“First of all, it’s a space rock, and I think that would be… interesting. Keira, do you want to change the voltage output setting to 51 watts? That should be enough,” Piper said, her eyes glimmering with curiosity.

Lana shouldered Keira out of the way. “Nuh-uh. I wanna do it this time.”

Keira spat, “Fine. Just try not to mess it up.”

Lana spun the dial on the generator while he stared down Keira. “It shouldn’t be too hard if someone like you can do it.”

Piper managed to attach the metal clamps to the rock, then said, “That should be good. I’ll complete the circuit.”

As they reached to attach the wire to the generator, Keira gasped.

“Wait, Lana, you set the generator to 510 watts, not 51! That’ll fry the circuit,” she said quickly, reaching for the wire to unplug the circuit.

Lana went to slap Keira’s hand away, and the moment their hands connected, Lana felt a sharp jab run through her body.

Her vision went blurry, fading in and out, flashing like a strobe light.

Was she falling or just dizzy?

It felt like

Her body

Was on fire

Suddenly, it stopped.

“Holy fuck! Are you two okay?” was the only sound Lana could hear over the buzzing in her ears.

She vaguely felt a hand on her shoulder, and she was too dazed to brush it off.

What… happened? Every sense in her body felt like it was tingling.

“Lana! Hey… Buddy!”

Her vision was slowly getting better.

“What are… three doing?” A sharp voice said from far away.

“Oh, they just… a small shock… It’s nothing, Ms.…”

Lana was having a hard time hearing.

Then a whisper from next to her ear. “You owe me for covering for your sorry ass. 47 watts! Are you insane?”

Lana mumbled, “Isss that a- a… a lot?”

The voice ignores her. “Keira, can you stand up?”

“Yeah, I… I think so.”

Oh, there is no way in hell that _Keira_ was gonna have a better recovery.

“Water?” Lana mumbles. Water always helped. Whether it was the ocean, the pool, or even the shower, water was where Lana felt… at home.

After a few seconds, an open bottle is put into her hands, and she shakily raises it to her mouth. Her vision got clearer, and her other senses started to recover, too.

“What happened?” Lana asked.

The voice from before - Piper – replied, “You set the generator to output forty-seven watts instead of four point seven. Then, like an idiot, Keira tried to unplug the circuit, and you… tried to stop her for some reason? Anyway, she touched the wire and you touched her, and you both got a shock.” Their voice was surprisingly gentle.

“How long did it last?” Lana mumbles, rubbing her eyes. “It felt like forever.”

“It was just for a moment until I realized what you two dumbasses were doing and unplugged the circuit.”

“Ha! Hear that, Keira? She called you a dumbass,” Lana slurred, glancing at the dark-haired girl.

But Keira didn’t seem to hear Lana. Her hand was pressed to her head like she had a bad headache.

Lana looked down at the bottle in her head, and then gave it to the other girl gently. “Here. This’ll… help.”

She robotically raised the bottle to her lips and drank. After one second, two seconds, she looked up at Lana, and- blushed? Maybe it was from the shock.

“Thanks,” the younger girl said. Then, after a second, “You’re really fucking dumb.”

                Lana didn’t have the energy or willpower to reply, so she just walked back to her chair and put her head down, hoping more than anything that this hellish day would come to an end.

oO0Oo

                “Hey, buddy? You okay?” Hanna asked.

                Lana had her head down on the cafeteria lunch table. “Yeah, I just have a killer headache.”

                “Piper told me about the shock from earlier. How do you feel?”

                “Like shit.”

                “Nicely phrased,” Piper remarked.

                “Hnnnnng,” Lana groaned. “I feel kinda weird.”

                “Well, shake it off. We have Pride Club after school, remember? This year, we’re leading it,” Piper argued.

                “Oh, fuck me,” Lana groaned. “I can’t run a club today. After school, I just wanna curl up in a ball and binge Netflix for a few hours.”

                “Understandable,” Piper added. “But there’s no way you’re leaving Hanna and me hanging to lead this shit alone. Didn’t you have that welcome dance prepared too?”

                Lana sighs regretfully. “Yeah. I had some choreography planned to ‘Girls like Girls,’ but I just fucking can’t, dude.”

                Piper sighs. “Fine. We’ll just get someone to fill in for you.”

                “Thanks, buddy.”

oO0Oo

                The final bell rung. Lana’s head picked up off the desk. She slowly slung her backpack over her shoulder and trekked down two flights of stairs until she reached the main atrium. Since she didn’t have Pride Club today, she’d have to take the bus home. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hanna and Piper talking to Keira and – Sheila? God, Lana’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the older girl. She wanted so badly to go over and say hi to Sheila, tell some jokes – but she barely trusted herself to be able to make it to the bus on time, and if she missed it, there would be a whole new definition of hell. So she headed outside wordlessly

                When she got on the bus, she said a faint hello to the driver, then scanned the bus for seats. Without Piper and Hanna, Lana didn’t know anyone, and almost every seat had a person in it – the only completely empty seat was the first bench on the left, a seat usually reserved for freshmen and the like. Lana tossed her bag against the wall and slumped in the seat after it. Then she began to zone out.

                Even on a normal day, Lana’s concentration was garbage. She had ADHD, which either meant she couldn’t focus at all or she would hyper focus and obsess over one small thing. But today, after the shock… Lana could barely keep her eyes open. She just… stared at the back of the green wall ahead of her that separated her bench from the stairway. Behind it, she watched a dark head of hair slowly rise.

                Keira. Fuck.

                Then the dark haired girl’s eyes came to rest on her. _Double fuck._

                She shuffled over to the front of Lana’s bench. “Can… I, uh, sit here?”

                Lana mumbled something even she couldn’t make out, then moved closer to the window.

                They sat in silence as the engine of the bus roared to life, the doors closing with a faint hiss, the freshmen in the back of the bus laughing wildly.

                The bus jolted forward, and both girls were pulled into the back of the seat. Keira’s shoulder brushed Lana’s, and the Cuban girl shuffled to the side to avoid any more contact with the other girl.

                “So… you don’t strike me as the type of person to take the bus home,” Lana ventured, trying to break the silence. “You seem too arrogant for that.”

                “Usually I ride home with my sister, Sheila,” Keira admitted, and Lana nearly shrieked.

                “ _The_ Sheila? You’re sisters? Since when? I don’t think she’s ever mentioned you,” Lana exclaimed.

                Keira shrugged. “Since a few years ago. We’re not… birth sisters. But she’s filling in as a leader for the school’s pride club, and I don’t feel like waiting for her.”

                Lana was speechless. Sheila was taking _her_ spot as PC – Pride Club - leader? Was she… gay? Did Lana have a chance? “So, is she, you know,” Lana started. “Gay?”

                Keira glared at her. “It’s not my business to say. Go ask her yourself,” she said, frowning.

                “Sorry, it’s just… Sheila was filling in for me. I usually lead the club. I could- I didn’t want to… Never mind.”

                Keira frowns and looks away. “Oh. You’re…”

                Lana manages a weak smile. “Bi? Yep. It’s pretty awesome.”

                Lana can’t tell if Keira is a homophobe yet. If Keira had been homophobic, Lana would’ve expected her to lean away or stop talking. She wasn’t doing either of those things, but… she wouldn’t meet Lana’s eyes, either.

                “Right,” Lana replied, rubbing the back of her neck. “But I saw you were on the bus this morning too. Wouldn’t Sheila have driven you?”

                “Sheila loves to wake up early. She was at school before the bus even got to my house. If I had to wake up that early, I would literally die,” Keira explains.

                “ _Same._ I need my beauty sleep,” Lana replies.

                Keira looks like she’s about to say something, but at the last second, closes her mouth.

                The air grows quiet between them. It makes Lana hella uncomfortable. She’s only known Keira for a few hours, but this is definitely normal for the two of them. They _should_ be arguing. But it’s like they’re both too tired.

                “So… you good? That shock was… pretty bad,” Lana asks, turning to face the pale girl again.

                “Hmmm… not rea– no, I’m fine,” Keira replies, avoiding Lana’s eyes.

                “Girl. I feel like shit right now, and I _know_ you feel the same way. Just fucking admit it.”

                Keira turns to face Lana, and she sees the familiar fire in the girl’s deep purple eyes. “Fine. I feel like garbage. I have a burn on my hand, and I can’t think straight. Happy?”

                Lana really wants to say, ‘Girl, I can never think straight,’ but she doesn’t think it’s the right time. “Nah. I get that. Sorry about messing up the circuit,” Lana replies, rubbing her shoulder.

                “It’s fine. I shouldn’t’ve tried to fix the circuit anyway. It would’ve been better if the circuit had blown out instead of… this.”

                Lana smiles. “I can’t believe that you, Keira Kogane, are actually admitting doing something wrong.”

                “I’ll deny it tomorrow.”

                “Hm,” Lana grumbles.

                When Lana gets off at her stop, she watches the yellow bus drive away into the distance until it disappears behind a tree and is lost to her.

oO0Oo

                Lana’s family might have been rich, once upon a time. Well, not rich, but better off than they are now, even though her family isn’t exactly poor. It takes a lot of money to keep seven people –five jobless kids, two adults worked to the bone – alive, fed, and clothed.

                Lana has six siblings, and she’s the second oldest. Her older brother, Emiliano, had been out of the house for… a while, so it was Lana’s job to pick up his job as the Older, Responsible Sibling™. She was expected to cook for her siblings when her parents pick up extra shifts, put the littlest ones to bed and read them to sleep, drive them around when no one else could, and get a job to help support a family.

                But Lana… she didn’t really want any of that. It’s selfish. She is selfish, she knows she is. She loves her siblings and her parents with an all-consuming love, but she just wants to be… carefree; to love her family and be loved by them, but never be tied down to the house. So she purposefully messes up on every job application, is always ‘out of money’ for drivers ed, and somehow manages to burn, undercook, or screw up on every meal except the simple ones, the ones her siblings can cook by themselves.

                She feels guilty, but not unhappy. Maybe that’s why she didn’t stop. Maybe that’s why she was out of the house so much, maybe that’s why she’d spend so much time in clubs or playing sports,

                Maybe that’s why she should’ve known to stay at school that day.

                As soon as she opened the door to her family’s dull green townhouse, she was immediately confronted by her mother.

                “Lana Virgo McClain! What’s this your brother told me about you not cooking dinner last night?” her mother, Valentina McClain yelled.

                Lana didn’t think of her mother as aggressive, just worn down and protective.

                “Ay, mama,” Lana started, “they were having macaroni for dinner, and you know Luciana can cook it – she’s thirteen.”

                “But Luciana didn’t get home until seven because she had to walk home from dance class because you still can’t drive! And Benji tried to cook hot pockets before she got home, and they were inedible, so he threw them out! I was going to have hot pockets for dinner tonight! And now I-”

                Lana hugs her mother, always a good way to calm her. “Mama, I’m sorry, I’ll go get more from the store, okay? Do you want anything else?”

                Eventually, Lana has a list of seven foods, including hot pockets, watermelon, and ketchup that she has written on her wrist in blue pen.

                She walks out of her house, calling a loud, “Love you,” over her shoulder, before getting on her bike and beginning her twenty-block ride to the store. What she wouldn’t give for a car right now…

oO0Oo

                Keira is a girl of few pastimes: kendo, freestyle karate, art, science… maybe the list was longer than she thought. But it’s hard to do any of those things when your brain is filled with fog and your body has an Error 404, no response. That shock seemed to hit her harder than Lana… maybe because Lana was shocked indirectly? Keira had been the one to actually touch the wire. And now she was paying the price.

                So instead of doing anything fun, like fighting people, she was stuck at home watching a rerun of one of her favorite shows, Brooklyn Nine Nine, even though she wasn’t really listening to the plot, and could barely focus on the screen. She barely even noticed when the door to her apartment opened.

                “Hey, sis. How’re you feeling? I picked up some Advil at the store, since you mentioned a headache. It could be your PMS, but you’ve never had that before. Maybe it’s allergies? You don’t have any of those either…”

                Sheila. She was home from PC … had it been two hours already? Keira wanted to sleep, but she just couldn’t get there.

                “I’m not sure what it is, Sheila. Thanks for getting that for me, though. I’ll have it with dinner.”

                Yeah, she hadn’t told Sheila about the shock. She probably would’ve overreacted and brought Keira to the hospital or ER, which was the last thing she wanted.

                In the background, she vaguely registered the light of the TV disappearing, the room going silent save for Sheila’s confident footsteps. A blanket is draped over her shoulders, and Keira sighs faintly, lying down completely on the carpeted floor.

                “You seem worse than I thought. You should just take a nap. The Advil can wait.”

                A reassuring pat on her shoulder, a pause, a light tap on the back of her hand, then, “Hey, did you write this? I haven’t remembered you eating ketchup in years. Something about it being ‘too fruity.’”

                Keira gazed blankly at her wrist. On it is a list of foods in blue ink. Leading off the list is ketchup.

                “Hnnng, probably, I can’t remember anything I’ve done in the past 5 hours.”

                “Go to sleep, Keira,” Sheila whispers, pulling the wool blanket higher over Keira’s shoulders.

                “Okay,” she whispered, putting the mysterious words in the back of her mind for later.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Big yeet, got some plans for this fic :)))


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